Coach's thoughts focused on family

“My paradise will come when we win football games,” said Chris Demarest, Hawaii’s new special teams coordinator, whose duties include overseeing the conditioning program and players’ academics.

Hawaii special teams coordinator Chris "Demo" Demarest's family was concerned after learning of this state's tsunami alerts over the weekend.

Now it is Demarest who is frantic as his family in New Jersey braves the impact of superstorm Sandy. His family is located in three towns in central New Jersey. His son lives in Hillsborough, his father in Middleton, and his sister in Keyport.

The towns "are above the eye of the storm, but the storm is whipping around," Demarest said. "It keeps destroying everything up there."

He said those towns have lost electrical power and the telephone lines are down.

"There's no communication other than cell phones," Demarest said. "They're worried about the cell phones losing their batteries because they can't charge them on anything."

Demarest said he told his son's mother to move everyone to the middle of the house.

"Sure enough, a tree came down, nicked the corner of the house and destroyed one of the cars," Demarest said.

Demarest said his 83-year-old father has a generator that he uses sparingly to power the lights and refrigerator.

"The town of Keyport, where I grew up, is on the bay," Demarest said. "It's so flooded up to Main Street. It's a mess."

Between practices and meetings, Demarest has been keeping in contact with family members.

"I'm trying to talk to them as much as possible," he said. "It's really killing me because I'm helpless out here. As long as I have communication, that's good. But I don't know for how long because they can't recharge the cell phones."

Bright back after illness

Receiver Darius Bright has been reinstated to the team.

Bright was presumed AWOL when he did not show up for two practices last week. His absence forced the Warriors to scratch him from the travel roster for Saturday's road game against Colorado State. The Warriors traveled with 62 players (two fewer than the league's limit) and took only six receivers. Bright was expected to be used mostly in red-zone situations.

Bright and coach Norm Chow met on Monday morning. Bright said he missed those practices because of illness, although that information was not relayed to the coaches.

"He said he was sick, but we never got the word," Chow said. "He never bothered to tell us. He's a nice young man who's very talented. He wants to play, but he has to do the proper things. I feel worse about that than anything else when somebody with so much talent is not (fulfilling) it. He's really loaded with talent."

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Homegrownwrote:

wishing the best for coach demarest , his family and everyone else affected by hurricane sandy...i cant imagine recovering in this tough economic times from a natural disaster.

on October 30,2012 | 06:02AM

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LizKauaiwrote:

Mahalo, Ke Akua. It could have been much worse.
GO WARRIORS!

on October 30,2012 | 10:05AM

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kennie1933wrote:

To Coach Demarest: At a time like this, football is secondary. All the best to you and your family!

on October 30,2012 | 11:28AM

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kennie1933wrote:

To Coach Chow: Bright's AWOL may be the tip of the iceberg. You have not treated the former players well, and it stands to reason that many of them are not happy. I'dhate to be in David Graves's shoes for whatever reason you do not like him. There will be others....